


wider than a mile

by meredyd



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-21
Updated: 2015-12-21
Packaged: 2018-05-08 06:05:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5486396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meredyd/pseuds/meredyd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“We could take this show on the road, you know,” Poe said while he adjusted the strings. “I don’t think the Resistance has ever had their own band before.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	wider than a mile

His mother had taught him songs from Yavin - the old ones that in turn his grandfather had taught her. Fast and lilting at the same time and full of an unequaled kind of joy. The guitar she'd left him was older than anything Poe had ever owned, seen, or heard of. It was made of red-gold wood he polished to a sheen and he took better care of it than he did almost anything besides his fighter. 

That afternoon he took it to the medbay and messed around a little, strumming absently as he watched Rey help Finn work through his exercises. One hand rested tight on the crook of his elbow, the other on the small of his back against the bracing that hadn’t yet been removed. Her grip got a little sturdier every time he winced in pain. 

Well, Poe thought. Almost anything until now. 

When they finally reached him, grinning, he put the guitar aside and let out of loud whoop. 

"Look at this guy. You’re breaking records!” Poe said it every day, and every day he was satisfied to see it made Finn’s face glow with the same nervous accomplishment. 

“I sure am,” Finn said. He lifted up his better arm for a high five. Finn was very into high fives right now, and Poe had to admit, was getting good at them. 

"Don't stop playing," Rey commanded, helping Finn down to a cushioned seat, and examining the instrument with solemn eyes. 

“Please,” she added. 

"Yes sir,” said Poe. He began a different song, something a little softer that his usual repertoire, and hid his surprise when Rey took up the melody. She had a nice voice. It was clearly untrained but crisp and full of feeling. She switched between Jakku dialect and Basic seamlessly but somehow he never lost the words. It seemed as if time slowed to match them, and it wasn’t until they heard Finn’s uneven clapping they realized they’d finished. 

“You heard his one before?” Poe asked quietly. Rey shook her head in confusion. 

“I haven't…but I have. I can’t quite explain it.”

“Good to know,” said Poe, full of awed laughter. “That’s a hell of a trick you can do, Rey.”

“It’s not a trick!” Poe waited to see if she was truly offended. 

Instead he saw that same joy radiating from her, the kind that came from those nights with his family back home or in stolen moments with his music, the only moments outside of flying he allowed himself pure focus on one thing. It lit her up. He felt it lighting him up, too. 

“You have to play another one,” Finn said. “Maybe four more? We can just stay here for the rest of the afternoon, General Organa told me yesterday ‘she’d kindly appreciate it if I got out of her hair for a while’ and she sounded like she really meant it.”

“We could take this show on the road, you know,” Poe said while he adjusted the strings. “I don’t think the Resistance has ever had their own band before.”

“No,” said Rey, shaking her head with the utmost seriousness. “Just us.”


End file.
